跨界进入者的成长机制研究：生态位竞争视角

The rapid growth stories of cross-industry late-entrants, such as Lei Jun of Xiaomi into mobile phone industry and Jia Yueting of Letv into TV and electric car industry, are occurring frequently nowadays. How could these cross-industry late-entrants realize their niche with such a short time in an industry with fierce competition? The previous research on late-entrant competition and cross-industry innovation cannot give a satisfactory answer. Research on late-entrant competition underestimates the potential of resources reconfiguration adopted by cross-industry entrants, and neglects the competition dynamics in micro-level (within firm) between entrants with incumbents. Research on cross-industry innovation focuses on the motivation and capability qualification for cross-industry innovation, and its relationship with innovation type, but pays little attention on its influence on firm growth. The ecological niche theory can be used to help overcome this theory gap. Niche theory explains how a population or organization responds to the resource competition with their competitors. The growth of cross-industry late-entrants is a process of resource constraint overcoming and niche construction by late-entrants with multi-industry background. From the perspective of niche competition, this study will explore resource configuration (about production factor resource) and market choice (about market resource), their influence on the growth of cross-industry late-entrants (niche realized), and the influence of industry characteristics on firm growth (environment). By showing new ways of resource substitution and market positioning adopted by late-entrants, exploring their co-evolution process, and examining the impact of inter-industry cognitive distance, this study will give several implications for further research and practice on cross-industry innovation and late-entrants growth.

雷军做手机、贾跃亭做电视……跨界快速成长的故事正在各个领域涌现，而现有理论对跨界一举成名并改变规则的现象未能给出满意回答。跨界进入者的成长过程，是后入企业依靠多重资源背景突破资源约束、构建生态位并快速成长的过程。现有理论对这一核心特征仍关注不足：后入者竞争理论着眼于后发劣势克服与追赶，忽视了跨界进入者的资源重构潜力和独特成长规律；跨界创新理论停留在跨界创新现象描述与对跨界动机、能力支撑与创新类型的探讨，较少涉及企业成长机制。生态位理论用资源争夺来刻画同一环境下种群或组织之间的竞争关系，对分析这一现象独具优势。本研究从生态位竞争视角探索跨界进入者的资源重构（要素资源竞争）、市场选择（市场资源竞争）、两者共演下的企业成长机制（生态位构建与优化）以及产业特征影响机制（环境选择）。用后入者资源替代与市场定位的新形态、产业认知距离等内容丰富后入者竞争理论，也为跨界创新研究提供新的理论视角和实证思路。

随着数字技术发展，产业边界加速被打破，新业态、新模式层出不穷。跨界进入者差异化的产业背景使得其资源整合行为不同于常规企业，其新颖的资源整合行为常常带来快速成长的效果。本项目从生态视角出发，探讨跨界进入者的资源重构过程对企业成长的影响机制，以及产业特征在其中的作用机制。具体地，（1）通过对跨界创新、后入企业成长、生态文献梳理，我们提出跨界进入者资源获取-资源利用-资源优化的三阶段资源重构过程。资源获取指通过购买、联盟或平台聚集等方式获取跨界进入所需关键资源，包括原始产业资源、进入产业资源、其他产业资源等。资源利用指通过将外部资源嵌入企业内部现有资源体系实现跨界创新，涉及资源所嵌入的各个价值链环节。资源优化指通过资源激活、资源替代、生态统筹和资源反哺等策略，动态调整内外部资源关系，培育和支持战略资源成长。三阶段资源重构过程对研究和分析跨界创新现象提供了分析框架。（2）通过小米、生意帮等多个案例研究，探索跨界进入者资源重构策略与成长机制。研究发现，当跨界进入者将平台作为主要资源重构手段时，通过独特的价值共创方式可以实现企业快速成长，这对平台生态系统理论形成补充，对平台型商业模式管理实践具有丰富启示。（3）基于大样本统计数据，检验产业环境特征对后入企业成长的影响机制。研究发现产业环境中技术资源丰富度和市场资源丰富度决定后入企业的资源重构机会，影响后入企业的成长速度。对于制造业企业而言，技术资源重构对后入企业成长具有重要影响，而且受到产业环境的调节。这对后入企业成长理论有重要启示，也对优秀企业实践经验的适用边界给出实践启示。（4）跨界进入企业往往采用新的商业模式进入现有产业，是非常典型的商业模式创新案例。基于跨界进入企业调查资料建立案例数据库，为后续开展跨界创新与商业模式创新研究积累基础，也为创新创业有关课程教学提供丰富案例。